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Fly close to Pluto in a detailed NASA tour
Alas, you're unlikely to soar over Pluto's alien landscape any time soon -- not when it's billions of miles away. However, NASA has whipped up an aerial tour that will give you an inkling of what it might be like. The simulated flyover (below) uses the New Horizons probe's latest high-res imagery to show off Pluto with an "unprecedented" level of detail of up to 0.25 miles per pixel). It's certainly not the same as being there, but it's not hard to imagine sitting in a spacecraft orbiting the dwarf planet. And don't worry if this doesn't meet your expectations. New Horizons will eventually send pictures that are up to seven times sharper, so you can expect more impressive virtual flights in the months ahead.
Exotic quantum laser could help study other planets
Scientists might soon have a much easier time discovering every last nuance of other planets. Researchers have developed a quantum cascade laser (which sounds like an amazing sci-fi weapon, by the way) that can cover a very wide range of infrared wavelengths at the same time, making short work of detecting many chemicals. Astronomers, including study backer NASA, could use it to determine the contents of a planet's surface without touching it -- important when you'd rather not risk breaking samples, or when it's not possible to touch down on the surface in the first place.
NASA discovers a 'close cousin' of Earth around a sun-like star
Talk about plucking a needle from a cosmic haystack. NASA just announced that its planet-hunting Kepler telescope has discovered Kepler 452b, an exoplanet that exists inside the habitable zone around a G-type star (that is, a star that's awfully similar to our own sun). The planet is about 60 percent more massive than Earth, and that's a pretty good sign -- researchers obviously aren't sure whether the Kepler 452b can support life, but the chances of it having a solid, rocky surface are "better than even."
Pluto's latest photo shows geologic features
As the New Horizons probe gets closer to Pluto, the pictures its cameras capture also get clearer. Take for example the black-and-white image above: it's no longer just a blob or an extremely blurry circle. Sure, it's not as sharp as we'd all like it to be (pssst, you'll only have to wait a few more days for those pics), but its details are pronounced enough to show the dwarf planet's geology. What you can see here is the side of Pluto that always faces its largest moon, Charon. It was taken on July 9th by the spacecraft's Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) from a distance of 3.3 million miles.
Telescope filter helps spot Earth-like alien worlds
In the hunt for planets around distant stars, the stars themselves are often the worst enemy. They're so bright that you rarely spot anything smaller than a gas giant, which isn't much help when you're trying to find habitable worlds. An alliance of American and Dutch researchers may have the ticket to locating Earth-like bodies, though. They've developed a new variety of coronagraph (a telescope filter that blocks starlight) powerful enough to give a much better view of the objects around stars, even when they're half as far from their hosts as Earth is to the Sun. The key is that it doesn't block light directly, like other coronagraphs -- it instead has the light waves cancel each other out, even in the infrared wavelengths where stars tend to blot out their orbiting companions.
NASA shows what it would be like to fly over Ceres
Humans might not fly over the dwarf planet Ceres any time soon, but that doesn't mean you have to wonder what it would be like to soar over this miniature world. NASA just released a simulated flyover that uses real mapping data to give a new perspective on Ceres. The vertical detail is "exaggerated," the agency says, but the video (below) still gives a good sense of what this alien location is like -- it's a tinier, bumpier version of Earth's Moon. And if the level of detail doesn't impress you at the moment, you'll be glad to hear that the Dawn probe is entering ever-lower orbits that should boost the level of detail. Don't be surprised if later models are nearly as good as being there.
Comet lander offers fresh insights about planet formation
The Philae comet lander might be slumbering, but it can still teach you a thing or two about the nature of celestial bodies. European Space Agency researchers have compared Philae's data against the more distant Rosetta probe, and they've discovered that Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko isn't magnetized. If it's representative of other comets, that suggests that magnetic fields aren't nearly as important in planetary formation as scientists thought -- these clumps of dust are forming simply through collisions, and magnetism only factors in when there's enough material for gravity to take over. It could take a long while before there's stronger proof of that theory, but it's already clear that some previously-held beliefs about comets were off the mark.
Mars probe finds super-active auroras and mystery dust clouds
As much as humanity knows about Mars, the planet is still chock-full of surprises. Just ask NASA: University of Colorado researchers using its MAVEN probe have discovered phenomena in the Martian skies that you would never see on Earth. For one, there are auroras that are so energetic (their electrons are 100 times more powerful than a spark of house current) that they plunge far deeper into the atmosphere than back home, or even other places on Mars. Scientists suspect that the Sun is to blame -- Mars doesn't have a protective magnetic field like Earth does, so the solar wind sometimes hits with full force.
Mars once had enough water to form a large ocean
You probably know that Mars hasn't always been so barren, but have you wondered what it was like in its heyday? You almost wouldn't recognize it, according to an international team of scientists. They've used six years of atmospheric monitoring to determine that Mars had enough water to form a big but shallow (one mile deep) ocean that covered almost half of the northern hemisphere four billion years ago. The artist's rendition above gives you an idea of what it might have looked like -- the Red Planet would have been decidedly blue in places.
Scientists puzzled by 'bright spots' on surface of dwarf planet Ceres
As NASA's Dawn spacecraft approaches orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres, researchers aren't sure what's causing the "bright spots" on its surface. The imaging orbiter snapped the above picture from 29,000 miles (46,000 km) away just last week, but until it gets closer for a more detailed picture, the folks at NASA aren't ready to decide the light sources' origin. "The brightest spot continues to be too small to resolve with our camera, but despite its size it is brighter than anything else on Ceres," said Andreas Nathues, a lead investigator at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany. "This is truly unexpected and still a mystery to us."
Gas planets can become habitable if their stars get grabby
It's tempting to think of gas planets as permanently hostile to life as we know it. A pair of University of Washington researchers beg to differ, however. They've used computer modelling to determine that these worlds can become habitable when their stars get particularly grabby. If a relatively small, solid-core gas planet orbits a class M dwarf, tidal forces can tug it into a habitable zone and not only wipe out the gas (through the dwarf's X-ray and ultraviolet radiation), but produce life-giving water from the core's ice. Provided the timing is right, the result could be downright Earth-like.
NASA finds Earth-sized planet that could support life
NASA's Kepler telescope has discovered a veritable bounty of alien planets, but none of them have been quite like Earth -- until now. Today, the agency announced that Kepler-186f is the first confirmed Earth-sized planet in the habitable zone of another star. In other words, it's the right size and distance from its sun to have properties similar to our planet -- namely, a rocky composition and liquid water on its surface.
NASA catches a glimpse of Saturn birthing a new moon
For the first and perhaps the last time ever, NASA's Cassini spacecraft, whose mission is to orbit Saturn, has captured a new moon emerge from the jovian planet's rings. As you might know, the birth of a moon is an extremely rare event, and in Saturn's case, it might never happen again. You see, there's a theory that the sixth planet from the sun used to have a much larger ring system, which led to formation of numerous natural satellites. After birthing a whopping 62 moons, though, the rings are now too depleted to make more, even if they still look lush from afar. This could be our very last chance to observe how Saturn's ring particles form a natural satellite that detaches from the planet and ultimately orbits around it.
NASA discovers 715 alien planets by looking for them in groups
We know that it's no longer rare to discover alien worlds, but NASA just made it downright commonplace. The space agency has confirmed the existence of 715 exoplanets discovered using the Kepler space telescope, ballooning the number of verified planets to nearly 1,700. Scientists validated the huge number of celestial bodies by looking for targets in batches -- the more objects were clustered together, the more likely it was that there would be multiple exoplanet candidates. The bonanza helps illustrate the frequency of planets among the stars, and it has also uncovered four more potentially habitable worlds. Researchers might not be much closer to finding the Holy Grail of a life-bearing planet, but they'll at least know where to focus their attention.
EVE Evolved: EVE needs real colonisation now
MMOs have absolutely exploded in popularity over the past decade, with online gaming growing from a niche hobby to a global market worth billions of dollars each year. Once dominated by subscription games like EverQuest and World of Warcraft, recent years have seen free-to-play games take centre stage. Global MMO subscriptions have been reportedly shrinking since 2010, and EVE doesn't appear to be immune to this industry-wide trend. Though February 2013's figures showed EVE subscriptions have technically grown year-on-year, those numbers were published just after the Chinese server relaunch, and CCP hasn't released any new figures since. Developers have done a good job of catering to current subscribers and polishing existing gameplay with the past few expansions, but the average daily login numbers are still the same as they were over four years ago. EVE will undoubtedly hook in plenty of new and returning subscribers when its deep space colonisation gameplay with player-built stargates and new hidden solar systems is implemented, but time could be running out on these features. Hefty competition is due in the next few years from upcoming sandbox games such as Star Citizen, EverQuest Next, Camelot Unchained, and Elite: Dangerous, and CCP will have to release something big soon to bring in some fresh blood. In this week's EVE Evolved, I ask whether CCP should focus on new players and suggest plans for two relatively simple colonisation-based expansions that could get EVE a significant part of the way toward its five-year goal in just one year.
Scientists prove dwarf planet Ceres contains water
Scientists have long thought that the dwarf planet Ceres might hold some form of water, but they've only had indirect evidence at best -- until today, that is. An ESA-led team has used signal fluctiations to confirm that the asteroid belt planetoid is spewing water vapor from two points on its surface, creating both ice and a rudimentary atmosphere. It isn't clear what's producing the vapor, although researchers believe that geysers, thawing or icy volcanoes may be responsible. Whatever is behind Ceres' behavior, the discovery could improve our understanding of how water reached Earth. We'll get a much clearer picture of what's happening in early 2015, when NASA's Dawn probe swings by to map the mini-planet's water activity in greater detail. [Image credit: ESA/ATG medialab/Küppers et al.]
Hubble researchers identify color of an exoplanet for the first time (video)
While exoplanets are seemingly a dime a dozen, their looks have been mysteries; they often exist only as measurements. Scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope have partly solved that riddle by pinpointing the visible color of an extrasolar world for the first time. By measuring reflected light, they can tell that HD 189733b (conceptualized above) is a cobalt blue, much like Earth's oceans. Not that we can claim much kinship, though. The planet is a gas giant 63 light-years away -- its blue tint comes from an atmosphere likely full of deadly silicate. As disappointing as that may be, the discovery should at least help us understand planet types that don't exist in the Solar System.
Astronomers find three planets in Gliese 667C's habitable zone
Astronomers have a good day when they detect one planet inside a star system's habitable zone. A mostly European team of researchers must be giddy, then, as it just found three of those ideally located planets around Gliese 667C. The group has combined existing observations from the ESO's Very Large Telescope with new HARPS telescope data to spot the trio of super-Earths, all of which could theoretically support liquid water. As long as the discovery holds up, it may have a big impact on exoplanetary research: it shows both that three super-Earths can exist in one system and that more than one survivable planet can orbit a low-mass star. We can only do so much with the findings when Gliese 667C is 22 light-years away, but it's good to learn that space could be more human-friendly than we once thought.
Hawaii clears land use for the Thirty Meter Telescope, construction to start in 2014
The Thirty Meter Telescope has been under development for more than a decade, but the sheer amount of land needed on Hawaii's Mauna Kea for its namesake main mirror has proved problematic: locals have formally challenged the multi-university effort over concerns that it might damage both the environment and natives' heritage. Regardless of which stance you take on the issue, the project is going forward now that the state's Board of Land and Natural Resources has granted an official land permit. The move clears an optical and near-infrared telescope with nine times the coverage area of its peers, and three times the sharpness. That's enough to observe light from 13 billion years ago as well as put a heavy focus on tracking extrasolar planets, including planets in the making. Any impact on science or Mauna Kea will have to wait when construction doesn't even start until April 2014, although we're hoping that environmental care requirements attached to the permit will let us appreciate both the early universe and modern-day Earth in equal measure.
NASA's Kepler telescope spies smallest planet to date, no aliens
NASA's Kepler telescope is permanently on the lookout for celestial objects of interest, and its latest discovery is a small one. A small planet, to be exact -- in fact, the smallest its encountered during its search. Kepler-37b is a tad larger than our heavenly dance partner, the Moon, and whizzes round a star much like our Sun, with two larger planets in its system for company. NASA's issuing back pats all round, as finding Kepler-37b has highlighted "the precision of the Kepler instrument" (although admittedly, the star's behavior was favorable), and suggests there are many more humble worlds of similar size awaiting our detection. It's unlikely any aliens call Kepler-37b home: it's thought to be rocky, with no atmosphere, and hugs its sun in a 13-day orbit cycle, meaning surface temperature is terribly high. Still, an achievement for Kepler, no doubt, but what we really want it to find is a planet home to beings who can explain the plot-line of Prometheus. We're still a little confused.